Bargmann v. Helms

• Citation: 230 U.S.App.D.C. 164,715 F.2d 638
• Decision Date: 23 August 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-1801,82-1801
• Parties: Eve BARGMANN, M.D., et al., Petitioners, v. J. Lynn HELMS, Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, Drew Lewis, Secretary of Transportation, Department of Transportation, Respondents.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)

Page 638

715 F.2d 638

230 U.S.App.D.C. 164

Eve BARGMANN, M.D., et al., Petitioners, v. J. Lynn HELMS, Administrator, Federal Aviation

Administration, Federal Aviation Administration,

Drew Lewis, Secretary of Transportation,

Department of Transportation,

Respondents.

No. 82-1801.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued March 17, 1983.

Decided Aug. 23, 1983.

Petition for Review of an Order of the Federal Aviation administration.

Cornish F. Hitchcock, Washington, D.C., with whom Alan B. Morrison, Washington, D.C., was on brief, for petitioners.

John H. Cassady, III, Atty., F.A.A., Washington, D.C., for respondents.

Darlene M. Freeman and Vicki L. Sherman, Attys., F.A.A., Washington, D.C., were on brief, for respondents.

Before WALD and MIKVA, Circuit Judges, and SWYGERT, ^* Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge MIKVA.

MIKVA, Circuit Judge:

The sole issue presented for review in this case is whether the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lacks statutory authority to institute a rulemaking to upgrade the quality of first-aid kits currently carried on board commercial aircraft. Specifically, the FAA contends that it lacks the power, under its mandate to regulate "safety" in the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, to require commercial aircraft to carry medical equipment designed to treat health problems that

"occur" in flight but are not "caused by" flight. We find that the statute portends such power and we reverse. In doing so, however, we emphasize that the FAA need not require such equipment. Our decision today holds merely that the FAA has the statutory authority to proceed with a rulemaking on the subject should it deem such action advisable on the merits.

I. BACKGROUND

The petitioners in this case are forty individual doctors, health care professionals, and airline passengers and two non-profit consumer organizations, Aviation Consumer Action Project (ACAP) and Public Citizen Health Research Group (HRG). In February 1981, several of these petitioners filed a petition for rulemaking with the FAA, requesting the agency to revise its aircraft equipment regulations to require the carriage of additional medical equipment on commercial flights. Currently, the FAA requires air carriers to provide "[a]pproved first-aid kits for treatment of injuries likely to occur in flight or in minor accidents." See 14 C.F.R. § 121.309(d) (1982). In particular, the FAA requires these first-aid kits to include: limited numbers of bandage compresses, antiseptic swabs, ammonia inhalents, and roller bandages; 1/8 of an ounce of burn compound; one (each) arm and leg splint; one roll of adhesive tape; and a pair of scissors. See Appendix A, 14 C.F.R., Part 121 (1982).

The gist of the petition for rulemaking was that the contents of these first-aid kits were inadequate to treat the more serious medical problems that airline passengers sometimes develop. To this end, the petitioners cited to articles in professional medical journals and to letters from individual physicians indicating the frequency with which such medical emergencies as heart attacks, allergic reactions, choking, and diabetic comas occur in flight. See, e.g., Petition for Rulemaking at 2-4 & Attachments 1, 3, reprinted in Joint Appendix (JA) 13-15, 18-21, 24. The petitioners also indicated that approximately 75% of long-distance flights have one or more qualified health professionals on board; that over 90% of surveyed physicians report they would volunteer their medical services to passengers who become ill in flight; and that most physicians believe that airlines should be required to carry more sophisticated medical equipment and medications than they now carry. See Petition for Rulemaking at 16 & Attachment 1, reprinted in JA 16, 18-21. Accordingly, the petitioners requested the FAA to consider upgrading domestic air carriers' medical kits toward the more comprehensive kits now used by several international carriers and toward several "model" kits now recommended by medical experts. See Petition for Rulemaking at 4-5 & Attachments 2, 3, reprinted in JA 15-16, 22-28 (referring to "idealized" inflight kit proposed by the Air Transport Medicine Committee of the Aerospace Medical Association; to a list of essential equipment for ambulances developed by the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons; and to the Doctor's and Medical Service Kits currently used by Scandanavian Air Lines). Although the petition for rulemaking did not endorse any particular list of medical supplies, see JA 15, the contents of the model kits to which the petitioners referred were generally different in kind from the simple bandages, swabs, and splints now required by FAA regulation. The model kits, for example, contain such additional equipment as stethoscopes, oral airways, suction pumps, and oxygen masks and such medications as Adrenalin (to treat cardiac arrest, asthma, and allergic reactions), glucose (to treat diabetic insulin shock), and Donnatal (to treat gastrointestinal difficulties). See JA 22-28.

Pursuant to the FAA's rules of practice, a summary of the rulemaking petition was published for public comment in the Federal Register, see 46 Fed.Reg. 42,278 (Aug. 20, 1981). During the subsequent 60-day comment period, the FAA received hundreds of comments, mostly (but not entirely) in support of the proposed rulemaking. On May 19, 1982, however, the FAA denied the rulemaking petition for fear that a revised rule would, if adopted, "require air carriers to

                [230 U.S.App.D.C. 166] provide equipment and medicine to handle general emergencies not related to flight or shown to affect aviation safety."   Denial of Rulemaking at 3, reprinted in JA 69 (emphasis added).   According to the agency, such a rule would exceed the FAA's statutory powers, which were alleged to be limited to prescribing only those medical supplies "necessary for the treatment of ... injuries or illnesses likely to be caused or induced by flight."   Id. (emphasis added).   Although the FAA also expressed its concern that more sophisticated medical kits might be subject to misuse by medically-unqualified persons, see JA 69, the agency made no evaluation of several commenters' suggestions that the kit be kept under lock by the aircraft pilot and released only to properly identified health professionals, see, e.g., JA 37, 43, 44, 49.   Indeed, the only acknowledged basis of the FAA's concern, a post-comment-period report of the American Medical Association, recommended that the FAA further study the frequency and type of inflight medical emergencies and "if the study reveals that additional medical equipment or drugs are needed then the FAA develop and promulgate the appropriate regulation to correct this situation," see Delegate's Report, Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 310-11 (Mar. 1982), reprinted in JA 65-66.   Perhaps for these reasons, counsel for the FAA repeatedly acknowledged to this court that the FAA's concerns about the potential misuse of medical kits did not form an independent basis for the FAA's denial of the rulemaking petition.   See Tape of Oral Argument (Mar. 17, 1983).   Accordingly, all of the parties agree that the determinative rationale for the FAA's action, and thus the sole issue presented for judicial review, is the FAA's contention that it lacks the statutory authority to promulgate a rule upgrading the contents of the medical kits carried on board commercial aircraft
                

II. REVIEWABILITY AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

At the outset, it is helpful to orient the posture of this case within this circuit's caselaw regarding the reviewability and scope of review of an agency's denial of a petition for rulemaking. In WWHT, Inc. v. FCC, 656 F.2d 807 (D.C.Cir.1981), and Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. SEC (NRDC ), 606 F.2d 1031 (D.C.Cir.1979), respectively, this court held reviewable an agency's decision not to institute rulemaking and an agency's decision, after rulemaking proceedings had been completed, not to promulgate a proposed rule. In both cases, the strong presumption of reviewability under section 10(a) of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 701(a) (1976), was found not to have been offset by a "clear showing" that "pragmatic considerations" made judicial review inappropriate. See WWHT, 656 F.2d at 815 (quoting NRDC, 606 F.2d at 1043). Although both WWHT and NRDC suggest that judicial review might be inappropriate, as a practical matter, in situations where an agency chooses not to regulate for reasons ill-suited to judicial resolution, e.g., because of internal management considerations as to budget and personnel or for reasons made after a weighing of competing policies, see WWHT, 656 F.2d at 817 (quoting NRDC, 606 F.2d at 1046), such pragmatic difficulties are clearly not before us in the present case. Instead, the FAA has denied a petition for rulemaking solely because it believes it lacks the statutory power to act--a rationale that is uniquely well-suited to judicial resolution. Accord National Black Media Coalition v. FCC, 589 F.2d 578 (D.C.Cir.1978) (reviewing FCC decision not to promulgate rule); Action for Children's Television v. FCC, 564 F.2d 458 (D.C.Cir.1977) (same).

The appropriate standard of review is found under section 10(e)(2)(A) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A) (1976): "the reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law, interpret ... statutory provisions, and ... hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions found to be--(A) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." As we stated in WWHT, the parameters of this standard will vary with the context of the case. 656

                [230 U.S.App.D.C. 167] F.2d at 817.   When an agency's decision not to promulgate rules reflects its broad rulemaking discretion, "the agency's determination is

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